


The Good, The Bad, The Undead

by CopperTulip



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Deadlock Gang, Deadlock Jesse McCree, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mama Ana, Minor Character Death, Slow Burn, Smut, Unrequited Crush, Violence, Young Jesse McCree
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-09-29 04:09:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CopperTulip/pseuds/CopperTulip
Summary: Jesse McCree ran away from home at the age of 15 with his step-sister, Ashe. They had big dreams, empty pockets, and absolutely no plan. By the time he turned 16, the world as they knew it ended. The dead started walkin', society crumbled, and suddenly they found themselves thrust into a world full of people who'd rather shoot you than offer a hand. If he was completely honest, things didn't really change all that much.After two years of struggling to survive while the world crumbled around them, Jesse was 19, jaded, and ready to raise a little hell.This life was awful, but if they were gonna die anyway, might as well have a little fun while they brought the world down with them.





	1. Our Kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> This is a project I've been thinking about for a while. A Deadlock!Jesse-centric zombie apocalypse fic. There's gonna be a lot of violence of all types so be prepared for just about anything! I'll add tags as I go along, and throw in warnings at the beginning of chapters.  
> There will be romance, there will be drama, there will be blood, guts, and gore. Don't like? Don't read.  
> Buckle-up. It's gonna be a wild ride.  
> Warnings: Violence, Mild Gore, Jesse and Ashe Swear a LOT.

Chapter One

            A hand being pressed over his mouth and a rough hand shaking his shoulder drew Jesse from a fitful sleep. His eyes flying open, a pair of frantic crimson eyes immediately faded into view, a pale finger pressed against chapped lips urging him to remain silent.

            The sound of shattering glass, the angry protest of metal straining to remain in shape sent chills down Jesse’s spine. His heart pounding in his chest, he slowly peeled himself up off the threadbare couch that had been his bed for the past few weeks.

            Ashe already had their bags in her hands, her jaw tense with panic. She thrust his bag into his hands the moment he was on his feet, slowly maneuvering herself over to the door so she could keep an eye on the hallway.

            A rasping growl, a wheezing breath, accentuated shuffling footsteps making their way through the hallways.

            The infected were already inside.

            Jesse barely took the time to pull on his boots before following Ashe, letting her lead the way out of side office that Jesse had selected to be his room. Sliding a hunting knife from the sheath attached to his thigh, Jesse quickly shouldered his backpack, following Ashe like a shadow into the hall.

            Grabbing on her arm before she could continue away from the sounds, Jesse jerked his thumb silently towards the rest of the doors lining the hall asking a silent question. The others weren’t supposed to be back yet, they left hours ago to look for supplies. It should just be the two of them in the abandoned police station that had served as their base for the past few weeks.

            The irony of holing up in the one place they took it upon themselves to avoid before the collapse was not lost on them. A place that once represented law and order, they’d transformed into their little slice of heaven.

            He was gonna miss it, but it wasn’t like anything was permanent anymore.

            A quick shake of Ashe’s head confirmed his suspicion. They were alone. At least that would make getting out easier.

            Releasing her arm, Jesse gestured for her to continue. Behind them, the ambling footsteps and the thud of bodies running uselessly against walls told him that the creatures might have managed to enter the building but were not yet aware of their presence.

            How the hell they got in was a question that he assumed he’d never get the answer to.

            He could hear the groans close behind them, his heart pounding so hard in his chest that he wouldn’t be surprised if Ashe heard it. She was leading him deeper into the building, towards the stairwell. That in of itself was not a good sign. If she wasn’t trying to get outside, that meant that there were more than just the ones inside the building to worry about.

            They rounded the last corner to the stairwell, and for a moment, Jesse was hopeful that they had evaded being spotted.

            Course it wasn’t often he got what he wanted.

            An inhuman scream pierced the air.

            Behind them, a massive shape rounded the corner, and Jesse felt his heart sink.

             Towering over six feet tall, muscle-bound and unhindered by the typical rot most of the infected were plagued with, the hulking bastard that made an appearance was easily twice Jesse’s size. Muscles that ran like cords across its body, its skin pulled tight and ripped back from its mouth to reveal jagged teeth that dripped red with gore. Pupil-less milky white eyes were locked onto their motionless shapes, rumbling growls reverberating through the air.

             Ashe’s breathing stopped behind him, her nails digging painfully into his wrist.

             Feeling its gaze bore into them, Jesse couldn’t convince his body to move. They hadn’t quite figured out if the damn things could see, or if they were just attracted by noise, and this situation wasn’t one he wanted to experiment with.  

            He didn’t have to wait long for his answer.

            A a bone-chilling, blood curdling battle cry broke brought the silence to a shattering conclusion.

            The creature charged.

            Jesse ran.

            “RUN!” Jesse cried, keeping Ashe in front of him and scrambling up the stairs as quickly as his legs could carry him.

            “The fuck is that thing!?” Ashe demanded, not daring to look over her shoulder as the hulking form behind them slammed into the wall at the base of the stairs where they had just been standing with enough force to crack the plaster.

            “How the hell would I know? I didn’t fuckin’ wanna stay and ask him!” Jesse quipped back, tearing down the hallway at the top of the stairs and throwing open the door to what had once been the Chief’s office and slamming it shut behind him. “Grab the bookshelf!” he ordered, grabbing onto the edge of the shelf and with Ashe’s help hauling it in front of the door seconds before the massive beast collided with the heavy wood with enough force to nearly knock the barrier from its hinges.

            “I ain’t ever seen anythin’ like that! The biters are usually slow!” Ashe yelped, stumbling away from the door and looking around the room frantically for an escape. “I hope you have a fuckin’ plan genius! Cause right now we might as well be a fuckin’ boxed lunch!” She cried, flinching when the beast slammed against the wood again with a furious roar.

            “I’m workin’ on it!” Jesse shot back, looking around frantically and immediately lurching towards the window, sheathing his blade once more at his waist.  

            “Fuck! That thing’s gonna get in, I ain’t ready to die yet, damn it!” Ashe groaned, shoving the heavy wooden desk in front of the bookshelf in hopes to slow down the beast’s forced entry.

             Jesse let out a grunt of acknowledgment, straining and struggling with the dry-rotted frame until he’d managed to open it up as wide as he could get it. It would have to do. Looking down towards the alley between them and the next building he swore when he caught glimpse at the swarming mass of infected below them.

            Horde.

            He was going to kill Bars when he found the son of a bitch.

            Their no-good lookout was supposed to be keeping an eye on the horde and told them that it had veered South away from them days ago. That was the only reason they’d let the others go out and scavenge for supplies with the swarm so close.

            Down wasn’t an option.

            Up it is.

            “Like hell are we gonna die here,” Jesse growled, looking up and gritting his teeth when he spotted the lip of the roof above them. It was a bit of a jump, but if he gave Ashe a boost, they might just be able to pull themselves up.

            Pulling himself out the window, Jesse turned back to Ashe, grimacing when he found the woman pacing around the room, her fingers tangled into her jaggedly cut hair trying to block out the sounds of the creatures attempting to force themselves inside.

            “C’mon, don’t shut down on me now,” He insisted, grabbing onto her arm and hauling her towards the window. “What sorta big brother would I be if I let my little sister die huh?” He grinned, earning a frustrated look from the woman.

            “I am two years older than you, jackass,” She growled, watching him situate himself in the window, his back turned outwards and his legs bracing against the wall inside.

            “Maybe, but I’m taller than you so…” He grinned, flinching when he heard the door groan and the desk shift with a screech. “Anyway, no time for arguin’, climb out and use my shoulders to climb up on the roof ‘fore that big fucker gets in here and turns us into mincemeat.” He ordered, earning an incredulous look from Ashe.

            “Jesse…”

            “Time is a factor, Ashe!”

            “If we fuckin’ die I’m goin’ to make sure that the first thing I do as a zombie is eat yer stupid head, McCree!”

            “We ain’t gonna die, now get on my damn shoulders before I throw yah out the window myself!” Jesse shot back, grabbing onto her arm and hauling her towards the window.

            Ashe didn’t argue further, scrambling forward she hauled herself out onto the window frame, her body pressed against the wall and her fingers tangling into his hair to stabilize herself.

            “Ow, watch it! Just…hurry up!” Jesse hissed, grabbing onto her leg and helping her climb upwards onto his shoulders.

             The disadvantage of his position he was quickly finding, was the perfect view of the quickly failing door. Hands reached through the gaps in the wood, gnarled and rotten down to bone.

            The big bastard brought friends.

            “Anytime, Ashe!” He yelped up at her, looking up and watching with bated breath as she struggled, off balanced, to grab onto the overhanging ledge.

            “I’m tryin’!” She growled, “I can’t reach the edge! Hang on!” He didn’t have time to ask what she meant, Ashe was launching herself upward a heartbeat later, nearly knocking Jesse from the window frame and kicking him in the head in the process.

            “Son of a bitch!” Jesse yelped, dazed, his nails biting into the splintering wood to keep from tumbling backward towards the writhing mass of gnashing teeth below them. “Ashe?!” He called upwards, terrified he’d see her tumbling back downwards but instead feeling relief surge through him when he saw her white knuckling the ledge her feet digging into the rough wall.

            “I g-got it! I fuckin’ got it!” Ashe laughed, hauling herself up with a few grunts and huffs of effort. For a heart-wrenching second, he wasn’t sure she would be able to pull herself onto the roof, but with a strangled cry of victory, she managed to hook her foot on the edge and fell forward onto the solid cement of the roof with a whoop. “I’m up!”

            “Atta Girl!” Jesse grinned, his eyes sparkling with relief as he quickly scrambled to his feet.

            They were out of time. Inside the room, the door collapsed with a final groan, and he could hear the massive beast pulling himself through the rubble with a roar that chilled Jesse to his core. Reaching upwards, Jesse’s heart flared with white-hot panic when he realized that he was barely able to scrape Ashe’s extended hand with the tips of his fingers.

            “Son of a…”

            “Jesse JUMP!” Ashe shrieked down at him, watching in horror as shapes lumbered towards the window.

             And Jesse did.

             Launching himself upwards blindly, he clenched his eyes shut, the wind rushing from his lungs as he reached for Ashe’s hand.

             He missed.

            His hand grasped nothing but air.

            Sagging downwards once more, world went silent as he realized that he was going to die.

            Until…something caught.

            Slender fingers wrapped around his wrist, sending him snapping to a halt. Pain flared through his arm, all his weight suddenly hanging from one hand. A strangled gasp fell from his lips, mirrored by the groan of effort as Ashe huffed and strained above him. He could hear the monster below him let out a roar of anger, and with a yelp, felt fingertips brush over the bottom of his boot.

            “Ah fuck me!” He groaned, sending his foot into the edge of the windowsill and driving himself upwards, his free hand hooking onto the ledge and his legs pedaling himself up the side of the wall.

            With a final pull from Ashe, he was over the lip, landing in a heap on the icy cement, breathless, but alive.

            Breathing heavily, the pair lay in complete silence, the only sounds their ragged breathing and the horde beneath them.

            “You know, for a sc-scrawny little twink you’re heavy as fuck Jesse,” Ashe groaned beside him, staring up at the sky, her fingers clutching onto his wrist as though she was afraid, he still might fall if she let go.

            A bark of laughter fell from Jesse’s lips, the tension slowly melting from his shoulders. Peeling his face off the safety of the roof, he sat up slowly, looking over his shoulder towards the lip of the roof and grimacing when he heard the beast below them furiously tearing apart the room they had been standing in seconds before.

            “I ain’t ever seen one of those things move like that before…” He mumbled, moving shakily to his feet and glancing over the edge, watching as a few of the beast’s followers fell from the window to the ground below mindlessly, the way they should act. “As much as I’d like a break, I think we should get as far away from here as possible.”

            “I agree with ya, let’s just hope that was the only one,” Ashe muttered, reaching up and taking Jesse’s off-hand so he could haul her upwards. “How’s yer wrist? That couldn’t have felt good,”

            Jesse shrugged, glancing down at his left wrist. It was already starting to swell, but that was far better than the alternative option.

            “Ain’t broken, but it probably won’t feel good for a few days,” He admitted, looking around until he spotted a long wooden plank that they’d left leaning up against the building’s air conditioning unit.

            Using the roofs as a sort of super highway had been Ashe’s idea. The buildings were close enough together that moving between them was easy enough. It was a hell of a lot safer than risking the streets most days, and as long as they kept the planks pulled back, it wasn’t like strangers could use their little make shift roadways.

             Hefting the board upwards with his good arm, he laid it across the opening between their building and the one next door, gesturing for Ashe to follow him before crossing.

            “Remind me to kill Bars when we find that fucker. I remember him sayin’ yesterday that the horde was headed South and we ‘didn’t have ta worry about it’.” Ashe laughed at the comment, moving gracefully across the plank after him.

            “He’ll have to survive the horde first,” Ashe retorted, worry flashing in her eyes as she hauled the board up with her once they were across. Hesitating at the edge, she scanned across the sea of infected swarming around the police station, searching the roofs across the streets for a sign of their companions. “You think Bob and the others will make it out ok?” She asked after a few moments of silence, trying to keep the obvious distress out of her words.

            Jesse let out a shaking sigh, running his fingers through his shaggy hair.

            He didn’t know. How could he?

             A horde this size could tear through a city and destroy entire encampments in minutes. He’d seen military platoons crippled by a horde this size before when the fight against the infection reached its peak.

            They broke through their fortified doors and windows like they were paper. Was it possible that the others had seen it coming? Of course. Bars might have made a mistake about the horde, but he was a damned good lookout. Zeke, PT, and Terran were dumb as a sack of rocks but they had Bob with them, and he might not talk much but he knew what he was doing. He was a wall of muscle and silent determination and Jesse knew for a fact that man would do whatever it took to get back to Ashe.

            “Yeah, I do. I think they’re just fine,” He insisted, nudging her lightly with his elbow and offering her a grin, “C’mon Ashe, they’re part of Deadlock.” He beamed, earning a shaking smile from the older girl. “Earth can’t stop us, and Hell doesn’t want us.” He winked wrapping an arm around her shoulder and squeezing her close. “They’re gonna be just fine.”

            Laughing, Ashe nodded, leaning against his shoulder, her eyes closing as she relished in the warmth he radiated.

            It wasn’t often he got Ashe to show any sort of affection, so he made no move to pull away. Instead, he kept his arm draped around her, letting the tension from their close call dissipate. They were safe, at least for now, and he was alright with taking a breather.

            It wasn’t long before she was shrugging him off, pulling away and readjusting the board on her shoulders.

            “Get offa me you sap, you’ll wrinkle my damn shirt,” She grumbled, moving to the next roof edge and lying the plank across the open space.

            Rolling his eyes, Jesse followed close behind her, a bit startled when she spoke up again once they were safely on solid ground once more.

            “You know…I had a dream last night that we were back home,” She started, “Stupid, right? We were back in that God-awful trailer with Ma and Pa… Pa was drunk, I mean course he was, and sleepin’ it off on the couch, Ma was smokin’ outside talkin’ with that neighbor lady that liked ta hit yah with her broom when she caught yah stealin’ from her garden. It sucked, but… man for a minute I couldn’t think of a place I wanted to be more.” Jesse’s eyes flashed, his mind returning to the hundreds of nights they’d had like that.

            His step-father, Ashe’s father, was a harsh man. He liked to use his belt more than he liked to use his words when dealing with Ashe and him. They were dirt poor, living on the edge of society in a tiny two-bedroom trailer. He hated it there, but…Ashe was right.

            As much as it sucked, and how many times they swore they would never go back after they ran away, it was better than this. Living off scraps they scavenged from the crumbling city, sleeping where they could find a safe place to lay their heads and fighting monsters that seemed to have crawled straight out of the very worst of the video games Jesse and Ashe used to play on the game system they’d stolen from a garage sale.

             Ashe had been seventeen, he was fifteen, when they ran away for good. They were young and itching to get away from the lives they were trapped in. Anything was better than home, at least that was what they’d told themselves.

            Lookin’ back three years later, Jesse would give just about anything to go back to where they’d been. He missed his Ma, he missed home, but home didn’t exist anymore. He wasn’t even sure if their parents were still alive. Had they even escaped the initial infection? He supposed they’d never know.

            Shaking his head to clear the morbid thoughts from his mind, Jesse grabbed onto the board in Ashe’s hand and helped her to level it between buildings. Thinking about it too much would just make things worse. It was better to imagine their parents home safe in the trailer, chatting with the neighbors and griping about their damned kids that couldn’t stay out of trouble.

             The melancholy look on Ashe’s face broke his heart. She didn’t need to hear how bad things were, how much he wished they could take back their decision to run away. Instead, he offered her a grin of encouragement.

            “You know, I miss it too, and I gotta admit this ain’t exactly what we had in mind when we said we were gonna form a gang and stir up a little chaos, but…” He gestured to the city around them, a wicked glint in his eyes. “This world ain’t got no rules! We mighta came from dirt but here? Darlin’ we’re fuckin’ royalty. This city belongs to us, and I don’t know about you, but that’s a hell of a lot better than shopliftin’ cigarettes and workin’ our lives away in some damn dead-end town.”

            He wasn’t sure how she’d react, but after a brief hesitation, the words seemed to sink in. The smirk he’d been missing returned to her face and a laugh fell from her lips as she moved to join him at the edge of the roof.  

            “Damn fuckin’ straight!” She hooted, picking up a piece of crumbling cement and hefting it over the edge a boisterous laugh falling from her lips when it connected with the head of one of the biters. “Yah hear that yah bastards?! This here’s our kingdom!” She laughed, bouncing away from the edge and turning towards Jesse with a smug look on her face. “C’mon Jesse, let’s go find our boys.” She insisted, bounding across the board to the next roof.

            Laughing, Jesse nodded, following her across to the other side.

            This life was hell, but if they were gonna die anyway, might as well have a little fun while they brought the world down with them.


	2. Don't Make a Deal With The Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter brings a host of new challenges, and when the Devil comes around with a solution will they have the strength to say no?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I started school and still had work so I've been a busy girl. I hope that a 7k+ update makes up for it ;)  
> Chapter Warnings: Violence, swearing, minor character death.

Finding the others wasn’t difficult. They’d thought ahead, plotted out different meeting points in case of such an event. Bob and the others were waiting for them in a gas station just outside of town scratched to hell and as exhausted as they were, but alive.

            Ashe reamed Bars for not keeping a better eye on the horde, but at the end of the day no one was hurt. They were all relieved that their strange little family survived.

            If anything, the loss of their hideout was the motivation that they needed to move forward. They never wanted to feel as powerless as they had in that office, and they were going to damn well make sure that it never happened again.

            With their court resembled, it seemed like a mighty fine time to start building their empire.

            Bouncing from city to city, they soon found themselves right at home in what was affectionately called The Wastelands. An area of unclaimed mountain ranges that stretched between some of the larger survivor communities.

            There was a freeway that had been lovingly dubbed ‘suicide ridge, that cut through the Wastelands. The area had been bombed by the US government before the collapse, and though the vegetation had returned, there was little left of the towns and other signs of civilization left.

            Outlaws and the biters were the only beings that dared wander the area, which was just fine with them. After all, they were looking for new blood.

            As it turned out, Ashe was a masterful recruiter. There were plenty of lost men and women looking for a place that they could really call their own. They were the loners, the criminals, the outcasts. The people that more civilized safe havens wanted nothing to do with.

            With the survivor colonies organizing more each day, most of the bandits in the area realized quickly that they didn’t stand a chance. They had brawn, what they needed was a little brain.

            There were a few who tried to underestimate them, after all, why should they listen to a pair of kids barely over the age of eighteen? Of course, they never made that mistake again. A bullet to the eye or a knife through the throat usually did the trick to show the rest of the crew that they meant business.

            Those who did decide to join up only had one little rule that they needed to remember: It was Ashe’s way, or the highway.

            There were plenty of abandoned buildings around that they could have selected to be their hideout, but Ashe wanted to chose one that would make a statement to the survivor colonies in their area. They might control the towns, but the wastelands belonged to them.

            So she picked out the biggest house that she could possibly find, a mansion built into the side of a cliff. One that over looked the valley that they ruled. They transformed the gaudy symbol of wealth into a fortress that cast a shadow across everyone below. From that point on, they lived the way they wanted, took what they wanted. They were the rumors that spread on the wind, the nightmare that shadowed even the infected that still roamed the streets. For the first time in their life, they were on top, and there was no way in hell they were going to give that up.

            At least, that’s what Jesse thought.

            The winter in the mountains had always been harsh, but they had always managed to avoid the worst of it by traveling to a warmer location, scavenging where they needed to and staying away from areas where snow collected. This winter, they were trapped. The snow showed up at their door before the last leaf of fall had the chance to fall. Inches turned to feet, and before long it was looking like the harshest winter that the area had seen in decades. Wind and snow combined into a lethal combination and empowered an enemy they thought they’d long since conquered.

            Supplies they had taken from caravans and towns that wished to avoid their wrath began to dry up quicker than they ever thought possible. Their mobility was slowed to a crawl, and the biters they’d been so easily able to avoid turned to landmines beneath the powder.

            They lost half a dozen men to the creatures in the first month. Groups went out, but they didn’t come back.

            Soon enough Ashe stopped sending out men entirely, the goods they had managed to scavenge slowly began to dwindle. Trapped behind the walls that they’d built, their men began to grow restless.

            Hunger and pent up energy are a bad combination for the most even-tempered of individuals, and Deadlock’s crew was anything but. Talk of revolt began to circulate in January, and by the end of February Jesse had killed three usurpers and Ashe four more.

            They held onto power by the skin of their teeth, but unrest was still bubbling under the surface. New challengers seemed to rise every day, circling the throne like the vultures they were just waiting for them to slip.

            They had gone through hell and back during winter, and they thought that they would finally catch a break, but when Spring finally did decide to show its cowardly face it brought with it the Devil himself.

            The Devil arrived at their door in a truck decked out with enough armor to comfortably call it a tank. Behind him, a convoy of vehicles each brimming with boxes stuffed with supplies. He greeted the barrels of their guns with a look in his that could freeze a man in place, and a laugh that told them that there wasn’t a damn thing they could do that would scare him. They had the high ground, but Jesse had a bad feeling that he had the upper hand.

            The man didn’t come alone. There were men and women in each of the vehicles, each of which armed to the teeth. They were not civilians with the odd ramshackle weapon, they were soldiers, armored and trained. None of them betrayed emotion or granted him a hint to what they might have planned.

            “Please, lower your weapons, I am not here as your enemy,” His voice rumbled through the air, powerful and commanding, sending chills down Jesse’s spine. “I am here as a gesture of good will, I was hoping that I could speak with your leader, if they are available.”

            Jesse spotted the red laser shining from the trees across from them, a soft curse falling from his lips when he realized it was zeroed in on Bob’s chest.

            “Ashe…” He growled under his breath, nudging her with his foot as discreetly as he could, his weapon rotating in his hand to point in the direction of the sniper.

            Ashe’s crimson flickered to the side, a growl rumbling through her throat when she saw the dot.

            “Awful bold of yah to call yerself a friend, last I checked, friends don’t use snipers on each other,” Ashe snarled back, a smirk on her lips when she caught the look of mild surprise on the stranger’s face.

            The look didn’t linger longer than a blink, the man’s eyes flickered to Jesse immediately, and a knowing smirk formed on his face.

            “Quite the eye,” He noted, seemingly impressed, shrugging his shoulders and waving his hand towards the tree where the sniper was hidden. “You can hardly blame me for taking precautions, your reputation proceeds you.”  Behind him, a form dropped from the branches to the ground below, the lithe woman shouldering her weapon and moving to her leader’s side wordlessly.

            “Flattery won’t get you nowhere,” Ashe bit back, keeping her weapon leveled at his chest, “Yer here for a reason, so spit it out. I ain’t got time for bullshit. Even with yer little army here yer outnumbered and out gunned. Tell us who the hell you are, and what you want or get the hell out.”          

            Around them, their men rumbled with laughter, and Jesse felt a twinge of pride in his chest as he glanced over at the woman. Starving and beat to shit, she managed to keep her sass intact, had to respect that about her.

            The stranger did not seem as amused by her tone. His dark eyes flashed dangerously, and for a moment, Jesse thought they just might have dug a thorn under his armor. Of course, it didn’t last, his calm resolve reappeared in a heartbeat.

            “Very well,” He hummed softly, looking up at them with a grin, “My name, is Akande Ogundimu, and I am here to offer you salvation.”

~X~

            If it had been up to Jesse, he never would have let the man inside. He would have sent them packing the moment Akande showed up at their door. He knew what happened when you make a deal with crossroad demons, the devil always gets their due.

            Akande offered them everything that they could ever need. Food, medicine, weapons, access to his colony’s doctors and farms. It was as if he knew exactly what to say, he could see the cracks in their organization and he was offering them the glue they needed to keep everything from falling apart around them.

            Of course, everything came with one low price. They would answer to _him._

After their discussions, Akande had left them on their own, retiring to one of the rooms that Ashe had offered him and his men. The seeds of uncertainty had already been sowed. They both knew they were standing at the precipice of oblivion, but Jesse wasn’t so sure that Akande was offering them a ledge to stand on.

            It was the first real argument that Jesse and Ashe ever had.

            “You make a deal with that snake oiler and we’ll lose everythin’!” Jesse shouted, slamming his fist down on Ashe’s desk furiously, knocking a few of their maps and plans to the ground.

            Beside her, Bob patiently scooped the plans back up, stacking them on the desk with a frown on his face. It was times like this Jesse wished he knew what the massive man was thinking, if he agreed with what he was saying. Ashe might not agree with him, but if he had Bob on his side, he was almost certain he could get her to cave.

            “You think I don’t know that?!” Ashe shot back, glaring back at him from her self-described throne. “Jesse what do you want me to do? We’re fuckin’ starvin’ here! When’s the last time any of us had a damn meal?” She demanded, moving to her feet and prodding Jesse in the ribs pointedly. “Yer skin and bones!” Jesse slapped her hand away, taking a step back with a furious noise.

            “This winter was bad, but we give into this fucker we’re handin’ him the keys to the whole damn kingdom,” Ashe’s furious glare in response to his words could melt steel.

            “I ain’t handin’ him the keys to jack shit!” She spat, looking for a moment like she might deck him. “You ain’t in charge here Jesse, _I_ am, and not you or that jackass is goin’ to tell me what to do! This ain’t a transfer of power, Deadlock is still _mine_. Whether I agree to work with him or not is my decision!”

            “You ain’t in charge if he’s pullin’ the strings,” He snarled coldly.

            Ashe’s fist connected with his nose before he or Bob could react. Reeling backwards with a furious yowl, Jesse landed on his ass hand immediately snaked up to cover his gushing nose. Blood poured out around his fingers, dripping onto the floor between them. Stunned, he looked up at Ashe, her wrist captured by a startled looking Bob, keeping her from striking him again.  For a moment, he swore he caught a flash of regret in her eyes before the look was quickly replaced with the same fury he’d seen moments before.

            “Watch yer god damn tongue,” Ashe hissed, looming over him furiously, jerking her wrist free from Bob’s hold. “Yer my brother, but that don’t mean that I have to put up with yer shit.” Turning away from him, she moved to the window, staring out over the thawing landscape numbly.

            Jesse cursed softly, snagging onto Bob’s hand when the man offered it to him and allowing himself to be hauled to his feet. A quick examination of his badly bruised nose confirmed that it wasn’t broken, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.

            Snagging one of Ashe’s kerchiefs, he pressed it to his nose to stem the bleeding before returning to Ashe’s side.

            “Yer a real bitch sometimes you know that? I’m just tryin’ to fuckin’ help,” He spat, voice muffled behind the cloth. “If yah had let me finish, I coulda told yah that I have another plan!”

            Ashe didn’t look up at him. He didn’t expect her to. That didn’t stop him from speaking any more than the punch had. It would take a bit more than that to shut him up.

            “The snows meltin’, the path down the mountain is clear,” He continued despite her indifference, “Let me go. I’ll take a team and come back with enough supplies to keep the gang happy. We rebuild what we lost, we come back stronger than ever.” Taking a step forward, he grabbed onto her shoulder whirling her around, so he could meet her gaze. “Give me a chance to fix this.” Shrugging his hand off her shoulder, she glowered up at him.

            “And what if you don’t find what we need? There ain’t gonna be caravans movin’ through this early on, they ain’t stupid like you,” She countered, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. “Spring’s comin’, but it ain’t here yet. Those biters are still gonna be hidin’ under what’s left of the snow.”

            “I don’t need to hijack a caravan to find what we need, and there’s enough snow gone that I can avoid them,” Jesse’s tone was more confident than he felt, “I’ll get what we need the old-fashioned way, scavenge one of the towns we ain’t hit yet and if we get lucky and run into a few brave suckers from one of the towns we take what they got.” Ashe didn’t look convinced, but whatever doubts she had she seemed content to keep to herself. Instead she reached up and grabbed onto his ear, pulling him down to her level.

            “If this don’t work, if you don’t find what we need…” She glared pointedly.

            “Then we make a deal with the devil,” He agreed, pulling back once she released him and readjusting his hat. “Until that point we do things our way.” Ashe snorted, rolling her eyes and smacking his hat off his head before moving back to her throne. Slumping into the chair and kicking up her feet she offered him a pointed glare.

            “Go get a team together, jackass,” She ordered, waving her hand towards the door while he scooped his hat off the floor. “But remember…you don’t bring back what we need? We play nice with Akande for a while, and I mean it when I say you’d better fuckin’ not ruin this.”

            Jesse smirked at the order, shrugging his shoulders and moving towards the door.

            They both knew he wasn’t going to listen.

~X~

            After changing out of his blood splattered clothes, Jesse gathered a team.

             His final group was composed of six people including himself. Trusted members of the gang were few and far between, but he knew for a fact that he could rely on the original members. He chose Zeke and Bars without hesitation, they were the brother’s he’d never had. He trusted them with his life.

            The next were a pair of sisters named Imani and Grace Thompson. They’d picked up the two a few weeks after they started recruiting.

            They hadn’t seemed like much at first, both barely over 5’2”, the eldest no older than eighteen with big doe like eyes and innocent smiles surrounded by dark curls, Bars had thought they’d been an easy score when he’d spotted their little encampment inside a bordered-up gas station.  That had proven to be a mistake. There were more traps set up inside that building than in the movie Home Alone. Before they knew it, Jesse was hanging upside down from the ceiling, PJ had lost a finger, and Ashe was offering them a job. They’d been friends ever since.

            The final member of his team was a man who’s hulking form rivaled that of Bob’s. Houston was an intimidating figure. Jesse didn’t know much about him, he had joined up when they had integrated his former gang into their family. He had immediately hit it off with Bob and had been loyal since.

             Jesse had joked that they had bonded over their muscles, but neither of them laughed. He convinced that was exactly what happened.

            Once his A-Team was gathered in the garage, Jesse slung his bag of supplies into the bed of the truck. He was about to enter the cab when he felt a powerful hand on his shoulder.

            “Jesse, is it not?” A familiar booming voice sounded in his ear.

            Akande.

            His hopes of exiting the fort without the other noticing quickly faded.

            Jesse turned, forcing himself to keep the urge to tell Akande to fuck off at bay.

            The sniper from before was standing just behind him, the eerily beautiful woman’s features unreadable in a nearly disconcerting fashion. Amelie, he remembered Akande introducing her as, hadn’t said one word during their meeting but had instead hovered like a shadow behind Akande, her golden gaze never wavering from their figures.

            Turning his attention back to Akande, Jesse shrugged the enormous man’s hand from his shoulder.

            “Only a handful of people get to call me that, you can call me McCree,” Jesse didn’t miss the irritation that formed in Akande’s eyes and felt a surge of smugness roll through his chest. Good. Didn’t want him thinking they were simpatico.

            “McCree then,” Akande continued, a smile failing to mask the coldness that shone in his eyes.

            Jesse’s Ma had always told him that you could read a person just by looking them in the eye. All Jesse saw when he looked into Akande’s eyes ice.

            “I was hoping to get a moment to speak with you alone,” Akande continued, resting against the side of the truck and effectively cutting off Jesse’s escape route. “I believe we got off on the wrong foot, that you are misinterpreting my offer. I have no desire to take control of your gang from you, I merely wish to develop a mutually beneficial partnership.”

            Jesse snorted, crossing his arms over his chest with an incredulous look on his face.

            “Well pardon me for bein’ skeptical, but I’ve met people like you before Akande, and there weren’t one of them that was lookin’ to share power over nothin’,” Jesse rumbled, doing his best to remember Ashe’s order not to offend the man.  “I don’t know how yah knew we were so strapped, how yah got information on us at all, but I do know I don’t trust yah further than I could throw yah. Ashe and me? We don’t work for no one. Especially not you.”

            Ah. Well he tried.

            A hearty laugh was not the reaction that he was expecting.

            Akande’s head fell back as he bellowed with laughter, much to Jesse’s utter confusion. Before Jesse could come up with a retort, Akande’s amusement seemed to die away his dark eyes locking with Jesse’s once more.

            Akande’s massive form loomed closer, forcing Jesse to take a step back when he invaded his personal space. For a moment, Jesse couldn’t breathe, the man in front of him was studying him like a tiger with a deer trapped beneath its claws trying to decide if it should rip out its throat or continue to watch it squirm.

            Steeling himself, Jesse forced himself to straighten, meeting the man’s stare with one of his own. He would not bend a knee to this bastard.

            A soft hum fell from Akande’s nose at the sight, and before Jesse could respond, he pulled back and turned away, gesturing for his shadow to follow him.

            “Have fun on your trip, McCree, and do take care,” He said as he walked away. “After all, what would Ashe do without her guard dog around?” He laughed, sending a chill down Jesse’s spine.

            Determination flooded through him, turning back towards his waiting group he grit his teeth and jerked his thumb towards the truck.

            “Get in, the sooner we leave, the sooner we get back, the sooner we can send that pompous asshole packing,” He growled, hauling himself into the truck and waiting for the Bars to start down the road.

            Glancing in the rear-view mirror, he could have sworn he spotted a cloud of dust, another truck following them down the path. But, turning around, the shape had disappeared.

            Akande’s words rang in the back of his head, and for a moment, Jesse couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

~X~

            The path down to the valley was a scenic one. Wastelands was a vastly overstated description of the valley floor that consisted of their domain. Initially after the infection first began to spread, bombings and controlled burns had leveled a vast amount of the area to rubble around many of the major cities.

            The rest had remained untouched.

            Mother nature had reclaimed what was hers quickly. With Spring fast approaching, flowers and grass were beginning to sprout from the cracks between the cement. Bushes and trees that had once been held at bay were beginning to stretch branches across the roadways.

            It was beautiful.

            The biggest feature of the drive was easily the river that flowed alongside the road. Swollen from recent snow melt, the roar of the water could be heard for miles around. It served as a roadway for the survivors. Those who had boats tended to stick to them, avoiding the dangerous roadways that were littered with bandits like them. It was far from an easy path to navigate. The river was a quarter mile wide in the spring, with rapids that could smash a boat to splinters.

            They had considered getting a boat at one point, but Jesse had quickly vetoed the suggestion. As much as the river was magnificent, and he could appreciate it from a distance, Jesse had no desire to go anywhere near the water.

            Fortunately for him. There were still plenty of areas left that they had not raided the year before, and even more people who chose to travel the roads rather than risk navigating the dangers of the rapids.

            Food was easy enough to find. Most of the small towns in the wastelands were abandoned long before they had a chance to be raided for supplies. The infected had hit those towns hard and fast, but after their prey had disappeared, they had dispersed, leaving little pockets of untouched supplies free for anyone who was willing to take the risk to enter the towns.

            The biters were still there, but between the icy winter, and the lack of fresh meat around they had entered a nearly comatose state. Some still wandering aimlessly around town, while others seemed to have laid down and gone to sleep.

            If they stayed quiet, the biters never had to know they were there.

            “Oi, Stop stuffin’ yer damn face Zeke,” Jesse ordered, tossing a few cases of canned goods into the back of the trailer hitched behind their truck. “You can eat on the drive back, the longer we’re out here the more comfortable that fucker gets back at the base.”

            Zeke grimaced back at him, wiping the tomato face off his face with the back of his hand. Letting the empty can of ravioli fall to the ground, he went back to stacking boxes into the truck.

            “Can yah blame me? I ain’t had a proper meal in weeks!” He griped.

            “No shit? Shut yer trap, ain’t one of us that’s had a good meal, you ain’t special,” Jesse growled back, shoving another case of water into Zeke’s hands before jumping down from the truck.

            The town they were in was only about an hour away from the base. A quaint riverside town with a view of the mountain ranges around it. Just large enough to have a pharmacy, a grocery store, and a mom and pop hardware shop. There were a few survivor’s colonies around, but so far it didn’t seem like they had thought to search the isolated spot.

            Moving back inside the grocery store, Jesse hoped behind the liquor counter where Houston was busying himself with loading up crates of booze to bring back. It would be a nice change to have liquor around, nothing soothed flaring tempers like a warm meal and a stiff drink.

            His target was not the liquor, as much as he could use a shot of whiskey. He’d run out of cigarettes two weeks before, and he’d been testier than a kicked hive of wasps since. Snagging onto a few dozen cartons he shoved them into his pack before leaving Houston to his collection.

            Snagging a fresh lighter from one of the check aisles, Jesse cracked open one of the cartridges and stuck one of the cancer sticks between his lips. As the end caught, and smoke filled his lungs, he felt some of the tension from the past month slowly melt away.

            They could make this work. They had the food, now Ashe had no choice but to listen. They didn’t need to give up their freedom to the first silver tongued snake that offered them an easy way out.

            Determination surging through him, Jesse let the smoke roll free from his lips. Keeping the cigarette smoldering between his lips, Jesse snagged a cart from the front before wheeling his way through the aisles, throwing whatever he could inside.

            Forty-five minutes later, the truck and trailer were packed to the brim with as much supplies as they could fit inside. A few biters had wandered close, but Imani had taken care of them before they had caused any trouble. Quick, clean, silent.

            “I swear, if you pinch my finger one more time I’m goin’ to cut your throat!” Grace and Bars had been struggling with the rachet straps holding a tarp over their find for the past fifteen minutes and didn’t seem to be making much progress. Instead, Grace seemed about ready to reach over and throttle the man who simply rolled his eyes and continued to adjust the straps.

            “Maybe if you didn’t get in the way they wouldn’t get pinched,” Jesse rolled his eyes at the muttered comment from Bars, quickly stepping forward and placing a hand on Grace’s shoulder before the girl could launch herself at the man.

            “Take a break, darlin’, I’ve got it from here,” He winked back at her, earning a flustered look in response. “Houston needs some help with loadin’ the rest of the water up anyway.” It wasn’t entirely true, Houston had it well covered, but he’d caught the looks the pair had been exchanging the past few months. He didn’t need to be a genius to put two and two together.

            She didn’t need to be told twice, before he could say another word she was trotting back towards the trailer where Houston was securing the last of the jugs, a little swagger in her step. Satisfied, Jesse turned his attention to the straps, working with Bars to quickly untangle the straps before securing them in place and taking a step back.

            “Y’know it never ceases to amaze me how good you are at that,” Bars pointed out, dropping down from the side of the truck. Jesse raised an eyebrow, earning a grin from the man. “I haven’t seen a fight yet you haven’t been able to defuse just by giving someone a wink and one of those famous McCree grins.” Jesse let out a bark of laughter, digging in his pocket for another cigarette before offering Bars the carton, lighting the end and leaning against the dusty truck door.

            “Famous? Now I ain’t heard that one before,” Jesse hummed, nudging the other with his elbow. “Natural talent I guess, had to diffuse quite a few fights growin’ up. You know Ashe, she’s good at findin’ trouble.”

            Bars chuckled, taking a drag from his own cigarette and shaking his head.

            “Deadlock woulda died off weeks ago if you hadn’t been around McCree,” He stated pointedly, “Ashe’s a good Boss, but she can’t control her temper. You’re a good brother, you keep her leveled. Not even Bob can do that, and damn if he doesn’t try,” He laughed, a sparkle in his eyes at the mention of the other man.

            Jesse couldn’t help the grin that formed on his lips.

            “Bob tell yah that?” Jesse prodded, trying to keep the knowing grin from his lips. He’d had a sneaking suspicion that the pair might have been spending more time together behind the scenes. Bob might not be able to talk, but he could sign, and he’d caught the pair more than a few times exchanging flirtations. “You too ever get around to…?” An elbow to the ribs was the only answer he got. Bars was stomping out the stub of his cigarette and moving to the other side of the truck in a heartbeat.

            “We should head out! Getting dark out!” The man insisted, the light dusting of pink on his cheeks all Jesse needed to answer his question.

            Chuckling softly to himself, Jesse pulled away from the truck as well, tossing his cigarette down and crushing it under his heel. Moving up into the front seat of the truck Jesse felt a surge of accomplishment flood through him. They’d gotten more than enough supplies to prove to Ashe they could do this.

            The streets were clear as they moved out of town again. Bars managed to move around any obstacles or biters that wandered out onto the road. They had music playing, some CD that Grace claimed to be the ‘best playlist ever’. Of course, she claimed that all her CD’s were ‘the best ever.’ She’d been carrying the disks with her since before the fall, it was the first thing that she grabbed. Even if Jesse wasn’t the biggest fan of her music tastes, the excitement that lit up her face every time the songs started up was enough to suck it up and let her take control of the radio any time they drove together.

            Despite the relatively relaxed atmosphere, Jesse couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He’d felt the prickle on the back of his neck that told him they were being followed since they left. The sensation put a weight in the pit of his stomach and had only gotten worse since they’d started heading home. With darkness quickly closing in, it was getting harder to see potential threats in the forest, which left his anxiety bubbling in his stomach.

            “Who even is this?” Zeke griped from the backseat, looking miserable where he was wedged between Houston and the window. “Can’t understand a damn word they’re sayin’. Why do you get to pick the damn music on these trips?”

            “Why so you can put on Johnny Cash?” Grace snorted from her spot between Jesse and Bars.

            “Least I can understand what he’s sayin’!”  
            “You’d be able to understand them if you actually listened to the words!” She shot back, reaching behind herself to try and smack him. Irritation surged through Jesse when Zeke yelped and went to smack her back.

            “C’mon now, knock it off,” He snapped, tearing his eyes away from the window for a moment to glare at them both. “Swear I’ll throw yah both outside and make yah walk home! See how yah like hikin’ up the damn mountain!”

            “Grace calm down,” Imani scolded, her eyes cracking open to glare at her sister from where she was napping against Houston’s shoulder. “I won’t stop Jesse from makin’ yah walk.”

            “He started it! Why am I in trouble?” Grace griped furiously.

            “You’re both in trouble, shut the fuck up,” Jesse butted in, attempting to return his attention to the trees around them.

            Wait…he saw something. It was a flash of movement, something in the treetops. A trick of the eye? No. it had looked humanoid. He could have sworn…

            “Not my fault she’s got shitty taste in music,” Zeke grumbled.

            “Shitty! All your music is about grown men wantin’ to hump their truck!” Grace yowled, reaching back again to smack him despite Jesse’s attempt to stop her.

            “God damn it all I said knock it off!” Jesse ordered furiously, glaring into the treetops once more. “Y’all think I’m kiddin’ about makin’ yah walk? Test me one more time I dare yah, yah sorry bunch of…!” There! In the trees he could see a light. It was…

            A resounding bang behind them. A rush of air followed by the thud of rubber against asphalt.

            Bars let out a startled cry before they realized what was happening. The truck lurched, skidded to the side, Bars struggled to keep the wheel from locking up.

            A second bang, this time in the front.

            The truck sagged to the right with a monstrous roar, Jesse’s arm snaked out in front of Grace to keep her from hitting her head on the dashboard.

            A third explosion, the trailer…

            A metallic screech filled the air, sparks flying out from below them as metal hit asphalt. The sound mingling with their cries of terror.

            The trailer behind them skidded out. There was nothing Bars could do to stop them from following it over the guard rail.

            There was a moment, a heartbeat of time, that the world stood still.

            They rolled.

            Metal crunched, glass shattered. 

            Once, twice.

            Jesse’s head struck the window hard.

            The world went black.

            Wet. Cold. He couldn’t move.

            The world faded into view in a panicked blur. He could see forms moving out of the corner of his eye, could hear muffled cries through the ringing in his ears.

            “I can’t reach them!”

            “There ain’t no ropes the trucks goin’ to go…!”

            “There’s water comin’ in we can’t…”

            “I ain’t leavin’ her behind! Grace?! Open your eyes! Please wake up Houston can’t hold the truck!” Imani? She sounded frantic…he could hear metal groan and shift around them in response to her voice.

            “Are Jesse or Zeke moving at all? Son of a bitch they’re sinking in, Imani let me try! Hold the truck with Houston.” Bars…that was Bars’ voice. He’d recognize that anywhere.

            His head hurt so bad. His eyes started to flutter shut. He could hear a roar around them, not metallic, this time it was something else. There was a heavy weight against his side, keeping him pinned against the cold that was slowly seeping in around him.

            Water. There was water everywhere. His lower half was completely submerged. Cold. It was so damn cold it knocked the wind from his lungs.

            The river.

            They crashed. The tires blew.

            No. He remembered the form in the trees. Not a blown tire, a gunshot. Someone had shot out their tires.

            Jesse’s eyes flew open in a panic, a cry falling from his lips as he looked around slowly the world began to flood into view.

            It was dark, water was slowly filling the cabin as they sank slowly into the bank of the river. Water bashed against the side of the truck, warning them of just how close they were to utter oblivion. The back end of the truck was hanging out of the water by inches, the trailer the only thing keeping them in place. He could barely make out Houston’s shape, the massive man straining to keep them from sliding further into the water.

            “Jesse!?” Bars’ voice again, looking up frantically, he met the other’s gaze.

            He was reaching through the shattered driver’s-side window struggling to reach them despite the truck sinking slowly into the furious waters.

            “Jesse, can you get Grace free?” Bars demanded frantically.

            Grace?

            Jesse noticed for the first time what the weight against his side was. Grace’s unmoving body was keeping him pressed against the passenger-side door. There were cuts and bruises against her face a colorful bruise forming on her temple. She must have hit the dashboard despite his best efforts to hold her back.

            “Jesse, we gotta go now!” Bars’ voice cut through his thoughts again, forcing him into action.

            “Y-Yeah…” Jesse rasped, shock and adrenaline driving him forward.

            His fingers were already numb from the cold, but somehow, he was able to locate their seatbelts fasteners in the dark water flooding in around them. The truck groaned in protest at the slightest movement, every action feeling like it would send them into the waiting jaws of the river.

            Hooking his arms under Grace, he hefted her upwards towards Bars waiting hands ignoring the scream of protest his shoulder let out at the movement. Broken? Dislocated? He couldn’t tell…it didn’t matter.

            Bars hooked his hands under Grace’s arms, hauling her up and out of the truck seconds before the ground seemed to give below the truck. They sank forward another few inches, a shout filled the air above them.

            “Son of a bitch, Bars hurry up!” Houston barked from the rear of the truck.

            Jesse straightened himself out, balancing on the edge of the seat and turning in his seat to start working on freeing Zeke from his seat. Zeke was painfully motionless, blood oozing from nasty cuts across his cheeks and chest. There was glass everywhere, he couldn’t see if Zeke was even breathing.

            There was so much blood.

            “Zeke you gotta wake up,” He ordered, numb fingers struggling to undo the seatbelt holding him place, panic building in his chest when the truck shifted again with a moan. “Zeke you gotta wake up!”

            Bars reappeared in the window, straining towards him desperately.

            “Jesse give me your hand!” He ordered, trying to pull him away from Zeke towards the door.

            “What about Zeke?!” Jesse called back, pulling one of his knives from his boot and sawing through the belt as quickly as he could. “I-I can get him out! Just give me another minute!”

            “Jesse, leave him! We don’t have time!”

            “I ain’t leavin’ him here!” Jesse shot back desperately, laughing when the belt snapped free, shifting Zeke into his arms and moving to turn towards Bars. “I got him! I’m comin’!”

            “Jesse, give me your hand _now_!” Bars called again, the truck sagging below them.

            Their fingers brushed.

            “LOOK OUT!” Imani’s voice screeched from behind Bars.

            The truck dropped suddenly. Water flooded in around him. He reached for Bars, but his hand was no longer there.

            Water filled the cabin in seconds, the truck slid from the bank. They were moving again. Propelled through the water in a metal coffin, the truck dipped below the water.

            Panicked, Jesse struggled to reorient himself, keeping Zeke clutched in his arms.

            The current was so strong. He managed to propel himself through the shattered window seconds before the truck sank towards the bottom.

            Untethered, he surged through the waters at a break neck pace. Floundering desperately, Jesse’s injured arm screamed in protest, his entire body being battered by the currents. Zeke’s dead weight dragged him town towards the bottom.

            They struck a rock hard. The wind rushed from Jesse’s battered body. His injured shoulder locked.

            Zeke slipped from his arms.

            _No. No…NO!_

Zeke was gone. He couldn’t see him. How could he have let go?!

            He didn’t know how he found the surface.  

            Breaking through for a moment, he gasped for air before the tides pulled him under once more. His hand scrapped across the bottom, slicing his fingers against the rocks as he struggled for a hold on anything. His body hit a rock painfully, knocking the wind from his lungs and leaving a fresh wave of agony flooding through him.

            He broke through again, sputtering and coughing. His fingers brushed something. A log. A miracle. His fingers scrapped against the side. Something caught. He hauled himself upward, clinging to the slick wood desperately.

            Hacking up lungsful of water, Jesse draped himself over the makeshift raft, teeth chattering, lungs aching, but somehow still alive.  Exhausted, it was all he could do to hold on for dear life, letting the currents carry him further down the river.

            Zeke was nowhere to be seen.

            Had he even been alive?

            They’d been so close to getting out.

            He didn’t know how long he floated.

            Barely conscious, his hand stroked against loose gravel.

            He didn’t remember crawling from the log onto shore.

            Frostbitten, bleeding, but somehow alive, Jesse had to draw strength from muscles that no longer wanted to function to pull himself to his knees.

            He had to get somewhere safe…Biters would find him…

            His fingers dug into the rocks, the nails split and bleeding.

            _Don’t give up._

            He just wanted to sleep.

            _Ashe needs you._

He managed to haul himself to his feet, his injured arm curled against his side as he stumbled blindly towards the trees.

            _You can rest when you’re safe._

He stumbled to his knees, a ragged sob falling from his lips. He could hear movement in the trees around him, footsteps.

            _Run._

He couldn’t move. The footsteps moved closer.

            _RUN._

The footsteps stopped beside him.

His vision blurred dizzily. Numbly, he attempted to reach for the blade on his hip, but his fingers shook too badly to unclasp the strap holding it in place.

            He waited for the inevitable pain of teeth digging into his flesh, but the agony never came.

            A gentle hand pressed against his cheek as his vision began to blur and fade once more. A creature with the face of a black cat rolled in and out of focus.

            Was he dead already then?

            Taking a shaking breath, Jesse tried to open his mouth, to say something to the creature, but for the first time in his life his voice failed him. He could feel unconsciousness flooding in around him as the form checked him over with kind hands.

            A warm voice rolled through the air, soothing and kind in his ear as he drifted into oblivion.

            “Rest now, Habibi, you are safe.”

 

 

           

           

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Zeke. Let me know what you think! Jesse's about to enter a new world of adventure in the next update.  
> I love to hear the feedback it really helps to gauge how you're feeling!


	3. The Art of Waking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesse's mother makes an appearance, and Jesse comes face to face with his rescuer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been busy busy busy, but I wanted to go ahead and get the next chapter up while I had a moment to breathe in the chaos!  
> Hopefully you like it!   
> Warnings: Mentions of Character Death, Angst for days, the whole chapter is sad so be prepared.

          Drifting in and out of consciousness was an odd sensation. Like floating in a pool of ink, his head just barely below the surface. There were moments, heartbeats of time, where Jesse could drag himself from the mire of ooze that enveloped his mind, but it was never long before tendrils of catalepsy pulled him below the surface once more.

            In those moments, he could feel himself moving. He could hear footsteps, could hear someone breathing right beside his ear. His arms were draped over someone’s shoulders, and he could smell something soothing, herbal, like tea leaves.

            He could almost force himself to open his eyes, but before he could, agony would rear its ugly head. It flared through his body, digging into every fiber of his being like white-hot pokers. Just like that, his mind would retreat to the blackness, allowing the numbness of oblivion to pull him into its warm embrace.

            Surrendering to the darkness, he dreamed.

            He was home again.

            He was on the same scratchy old couch his step-father refused to replace because it was too expensive. He could hear the TV playing his mother’s soap-operas, could smell his step-father’s infamous habanero chili cooking on the stove. From where he was lying, he could make out his parent’s forms standing in the kitchen. He wanted desperately to say something, to pry himself from the couch and throw his arms around them both, but he couldn’t move. He was paralyzed. Trapped in his own body, he could only watch the scene play out.

            “Money’s going to be tight this month,” His step-father mumbled, his voice sounded so close, so real. Jesse felt tears bubble up in his eyes.  

            “Always is, ain’t nothin’ new, we’ll make it work,”

             Ma.

             Jesse’s heart lurched in his chest.

            He missed her so damn much.

            From where he was lying, he couldn’t make out her face. She was turned away from him, her hand resting on his stepfather’s shoulder. He wanted to yell, to beg her to turn around, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not force his mouth to open.

            “Jesse’s birthday’s right around the corner, he’s goin’ to be fourteen…can you believe it?” She continued, a hum falling from her lips softly. “Mi Cielito, all grown up.”

            He remembered the last time he’d heard her use that nickname. He’d gotten angry, told her that he wasn’t a kid anymore. He could remember regretting it instantly, she’d tried so hard to hide how badly it hurt her, but he had seen the grief in her eyes.      

            He had caused her so much pain…

            “I was thinkin’, maybe we should take the kids somewhere fun for the weekend, maybe up to the cabin by the river? You keep promising to take them fishin’,” She chastised his stepfather playfully.

            “Yah think we can afford to take that much time off work?” His stepfather snorted.

            Jesse wanted desperately to tell them no. That they didn’t need to. That he didn’t deserve for them to spend a dime on him. He ran away that summer. He and Ashe packed up and left everything behind.

            He had been so damn proud of himself.

            He’d been so desperate to escape their dead-end town, that he never once thought about who he was leaving behind.

            He didn’t even know if she was still alive! Did she die in the initial infection wondering where her little boy was? Was she still alive? Did she sit up late at night grieving him? Was she still looking for him?

            The thought broke his heart.

            The scene shifted slightly, and suddenly, his mother’s face faded into view. She was kneeling beside the couch, her fingers trailing slowly through his hair. Her dark brown eyes, a mirror image of his own, locked on his face.

            “I think we can manage, don’t you think, mijito?” She asked gently, her touch warm against his icy skin.

            Jesse could feel tears streaming down his cheeks as he looked up at her, the lock on his throat slowly easing as he sobbed.                  

            “Ma…” He rasped weakly. Was he dead then? Was this heaven?

            His mother smiled sadly back at him, leaning down and pressing her ruby lips to his forehead.

            “Mi Cielito, you’ve been so brave, I am so proud of you,” She mumbled, gently brushing the tears from his cheeks.

            Their livingroom had disappeared completely. In its place, the frozen shore of the river appeared. He was lying in the mud, sinking slowly towards the river raging behind him.

            The world was starting to fade, Jesse felt panic surge through him as his hand moved up to catch her wrist. The water was rising, he could feel it lapping at the back of his head. The icy blackness of the water seeping upwards and dragging him away with the current.

            “I wanna stay,” He sobbed, clinging onto her hand with a panicked sound. Her eyes were sympathetic, soft. Her voice was fading even as he tightened his grip on her fingers. The water was dragging him down, he could feel it around his neck.

            “It will be alright, we’ll see each other again,” She promised, her touch the only thing keeping him from sinking into the raging waters. “It’s time to wake up now.”

            “Please don’t go…” He begged weakly, watching her image fade into the blackness that encroached in on their world. The water was choking him, he could barely keep his head above the surface.

            “I love you, my little cowboy,” Her voice was a whisper in his ear, her touch only a lingering warmth as his head slipped beneath the waves.

            He opened his mouth to call out for her, but water flooded into his mouth, silencing him as the water roared around him.

            She was gone.

            The current was pulling him downwards again.

            He was so tired. He didn’t want to fight any longer. He should just let the river take him. He’d failed Ashe, he’d failed his friends, he’d broken his mother’s heart…It was his fault. All of it.

            As the world began to fade around him, Jesse’s could make out a soft sound that started to drown out the thoughts invading his head.

            Someone was humming.

            The roar of the river slowly disappeared, replaced by the simple melody.

            Suspended in nothingness, the song tethered Jesse in place. He clung to the sound like a lifeline, letting it pull him free from the rapids until the waters settled into a gentle stream.

            “Why do you hum for him? Can he hear it?” A girl’s voice, soft as though she were trying to keep from waking him, brought the humming to a stop.

            “Well, we really don’t have a way to know,” A woman’s warm voice sounded in its place, “But suppose you were very sick, wouldn’t you want someone to hum for you?” She asked gently.

            “Oh….” Came the soft response, “Can I hum for him too, mama?”

            A soft chuckle.

            “Of course, Habibi,”

            Suspended in limbo, Jesse drifted into oblivion to the same soft song, this time, a duet.

~X~

            Jesse didn’t know how long he drifted in the abyss, but slowly he felt his consciousness pull itself back towards the real world.

            At first, it was fleeting moments of awareness. A glimpse of shadowy figures bent over him, or disembodied voices floating through the air. Sometimes he could make out what they were saying, other times, they were muffled whispered that hummed in his head before dissipating again.

            He slowly began to become aware of different sensations. Mostly, it was pain. Shooting agony from different parts of his body. His ribs, his arm, his head… each would protest the more cognitively aware he became before his mind would retreat once more to the darkness where the agony could not find him.

            Eventually, though, he couldn’t hide anymore, and his body came to the final consensus that it was time to wake up.

            Slowly, his eyes fluttered open, and pain shot through his aching head nauseatingly. For a moment, he laid still his eyes squinted and a groan falling from his cracked lips softly. Everything hurt, and he was pretty sure the only reason he hadn’t already vomited was the fact that there was nothing in his stomach to throw up.

            The first thing that came into view, was a machine. A heart monitor beeping rhythmically beside his bedside. Looking around slowly in confusion, he noticed that was not the only wire connected to his body. There was an IV drip, with some sort of clear liquid inside of it. Judging from the pain he was in, he could eliminate the idea that it was morphine.

            Blinking his eyes to clear the haze, he looked around the room slowly. The haze of fever hanging from his body made things unfocused, and fuzzy, but he was able to make out some basic information from his surroundings. He was on a bed. A real bed with sheets that looked like they’d been cleaned recently. They were mismatched, but they had no holes. They smelled like soap.

            There were two chairs beside his bed, a book rested on a stand next to them. Otherwise, the room was empty. The walls were stark white and scrubbed clean, sterile like a room in a hospital should be.

            It was surreal, as though he had been transported back in time and was waking up after some stupid hijinks. It wouldn’t be the first time he woke up in a hospital.

            If this was a hospital…was everything a dream? Was he safe at home where he should be away form the hell hole that had become his life? He wanted to believe it more than anything, but in that same breath, he came to a brokenhearted realization: His wrist was tied to the bed.

            Trying to lift his hand to his forehead, Jesse immediately felt the familiar chill of metal against his skin. Handcuffs. He was handcuffed to the bed. Whoever had saved him was obviously taking precautions, and as the world slowly became clearer, he began to realize his fantasy was just that: a fantasy.

            The windows behind him were boarded up, metal bars welded in place to keep the dead from getting inside. As clean and sterile the inside was, it couldn’t hide the reality of the world outside. He wasn’t home, and he sure as hell wasn’t back at Deadlock’s hideout either.

            Slumping back against the sheets, Jesse grit his teeth, scrambling to piece together what he could remember through the haze of pain clouding his thoughts. Rubbing his aching temples with his free hand he tried desperately to remember what had happened to him. He could catch glimpses, flashes of images that didn’t make sense. The truck. Water. Then lots and lots of pain. That was all his brain could provide him with.

            “Son of a bitch…” He rasped softly, struggling to sit up with a groan of effort as his ribs protested angrily and a ragged wet cough fell from his lips leaving him gasping and slumping back against the bed.

            He wasn’t going anywhere. Swearing angrily, Jesse looked up with a start when he heard footsteps approaching quickly down the hall their voices raised loud enough for him to make out what they were saying.

            “What will you do when he wakes up? You should never have brought him here, Amari!” A man’s voice rose angrily through the air. “You saw his tattoo, he’s one of those Deadlock thugs!” Jesse’s heart lurched in his chest, his eyes flickering towards the tattoo on his left arm. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time to get the tattoo done, a mark that bound them all together. Now, defenseless and at the mercy at these strangers, he was wishing they had no idea who he was.

            At least that confirmed his theory that wherever he was, he was nowhere near Ashe and the others. It also told him that wherever he was, he sure as hell wasn’t safe.

            “Do not raise your voice at me, Winston!” He recognized the woman’s voice. The familiar sound resonated in his head, the hazy memories from his time spent unconscious revolving around her presence. “What would you have had me do? Leave him to die in the woods?”

            “At least he would not be here threatening our people!” A barking laugh fell from the woman’s lips at the comment. “We are wasting resources our people need on a delinquent!” Winston all but shouted back, a murmur of agreement filling the air from others in the hall.

             “He is a child!” The woman shot back.

            “He is a criminal!” Winston, furiously retorted, “The fact that you and Angela thought you could keep him hidden from the rest of us…he could have woken up and killed us all in our bed!”

            “He is sick with pneumonia, has at least six broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a concussion! He may not even wake up!” A second woman’s voice cut in defensively, her voice crisp and light in comparison to the first woman’s. “The only person he could possibly endanger in his current state is himself!”

            “And once he is recovered?” A third woman’s voice, this one heavy with some sort of Eastern European accent, Jesse’s head hurt too badly to try and isolate where. “He could easily slit our throats in our sleep.”

            Jesse’s anger flared at the comment, he might be an outlaw but that didn’t mean he didn’t have honor.

            For a moment the voices became too mingled for him to understand in his feverish haze. There were too many people talking all at once and the noise made his aching head spin.

            “He’s dangerous…”

            “Murderer…”

            “…Like bringing in a wild animal…

            “Are you dense in the head, Ana?”

            “Speak to her in that way again, and I will give you a real reason to be afraid!”

            “Reinhardt, please…”

            “I didn’t realize we were allowing rabid dogs to join our ranks!”

            “He won’t hurt anyone! You haven’t even given him a chance!”

            “Fareeha, you are supposed to be in your room!”

            “You can’t control your own daughter what makes you think you can control an outlaw, Amari?”

            “Please, we can discuss this later, my patient needs to rest…”

            “He is not a patient!”

            “We do not have the resources for you to be taking in strays out of pity, Doctor Ziegler.

            “ENOUGH!” A new man’s voice boomed over the crowd, bringing everyone’s voices to an immediate halt.

            “Gabriel…You weren’t supposed to be back until later tonight…” Winston’s voice began hesitantly.

            “And you thought you’d take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t home to start fights over something I’ve already given my verdict on?” The new voice rumbled dangerously.

            “Well, I…we…”

            “The kid is barely a hundred pounds soaking wet, if you consider him a threat maybe you’ve been inside the walls too long,” The man, Gabriel, continued, not waiting for a response, “If that’s the case I’ll gladly put every one of you on patrol so you can remind yourself of what danger really is.” The crowd murmured amongst themselves for a moment before he continued on, “Deadlock is hardly a threat anymore. You were there when Lena gave her report, the whole gang’s gone. Nothing’s left of their hideout but a few bullet cases and whatever unlucky bastards got left behind to rot. Whatever happened? They cleared out quick. So if you’re worried about this runt going and bringing back friends? I think your worries are better placed somewhere else.”

            Jesse’s blood ran cold.

            Ashe.

            Sitting up despite the agony that roared through him he strained to hear more.

            “For all we know? He’s the last one left,”

            No. No. NO.

            He wasn’t the last one left! He couldn’t be the last one left! How long had he been out? He couldn’t even remember what happened, how he ended up where he was. The blurred images of the night of his accident didn’t make sense, and the harder he strained to sort them out the more confused his thoughts became.

            “That bein’ said,” A new man’s voice cut in suddenly, “He is still a criminal, young or not. We have our own children to worry about, we don’t need him around here stirrin’ up trouble.”

            “That’s not your call to make, Lindholm,” Gabriel snapped back firmly, “Like it or not, I was placed in charge of this colony and I have made my decision. The boy stays until he gives us a reason to believe he is dangerous.”

            “If Jack were still here, he never woulda let yah bring him in here in the first place!”

            It was as though a gunshot had sounded. An eerie silence filled the air following the man’s comment.  Jesse could almost make out a gathered intake of breath.

            “Gabriel…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” The man’s voice was softer this time, apologetic. The anger died away in a heartbeat.

            “The kid stays,” Gabriel hissed coldly, his voice followed by footsteps moving furiously away from the doorway.

            This seemed to cool the mob’s temper. Quickly, they dispersed, leaving the hall quiet once more.

            Jesse settled back against his pillows, grief and confusion swirling through him in the sudden silence.

            Ashe, Bob, Bars…they couldn’t be dead.

            Tears bubbled up in Jesse’s eyes as his fist clenched in the sheets at his side. What happened? Why couldn’t he remember what happened to him?

            He barely heard the door to his room creak open softly.

            Looking up with a start, he furiously wiped the tears from his cheeks to attempt to save some face before his eyes flickered upwards to meet the stunned gazes of the two women in the doorway.

            “You’re awake!” A soft voice gasped, a third form popping out from behind the women.

            In a blur of movement too quick for his fever-addled brain to comprehend, the third shape had launched herself onto the bed and a pair of dark eyes were boring into his own. A pair of warm hands cupped his cheeks so that she could study him over curiously.

            “Fareeha!” The first woman, the oldest in the group managed to yelp out rushing forward to pull the girl away from Jesse.

            The second woman was by Jesse’s side in a heartbeat, lifting his wrist with concern in her sharp blue eyes she glanced down at her watch for a moment before releasing him once more. Reaching into her pocket she produced a tiny penlight and flashed it in his eyes sending pain shooting through his head. Squinting, he tried to keep his eyes open while she worked words failing him.

            “You must be very confused,” She began, pulling back after a moment of examination, brushing her blond hair from her face. “I need to ask you a few things, please answer them to the best of your ability.” She insisted, snagging a clipboard from beside his bed and beginning to scribble out some notes. “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” She asked, looking up at him expectantly.

            The question barely registered in his brain.

            “I uh…. Seven?” He attempted, rubbing at his aching temples. “W-where am I?” Jesse rasped hoarsely, his throat screaming in protest at the action.

            “Here, drink this,” The woman whose voice he remembered from his dreams insisted gently handing him a cup filled with what he identified as water after a few gulps. Looking up at her gratefully, he wiped a few stray droplets from his chin with a shaking hand meeting the honey colored eyes of his rescuer for the first time.

             Ana…he’d heard them call her Ana.

            She had a tattoo too, was for some reason the first thing his broken head focused in on. Underneath her right eye. He liked it. Glancing back at her stupidly, Jesse opened his mouth to try and say something, but what did he say to someone who had literally saved his life?

            Ana didn’t give him too much time to scramble to find words to say. Reaching out, she lifted the empty cup from his hands and settled it on the table beside them.

            “Fareeha, please go start a kettle for tea, and see if Mako has any soup left over from lunch,” She insisted, glancing over at the girl standing behind her who was practically vibrating with excitement.

            “But mom!”

            “Now, Fareeha,” She ordered firmly, glaring until the girl relented and made her way out the door again.

            On his other side, the blond woman waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention.

            “I promise this will not take too much longer,” She insisted when he met her gaze again, “Could you please tell me your name?”

            Name. At least he could remember that much.

            “Jesse,” He mumbled, a wheezing cough falling from his lips in protest of the sudden use of his voice.

            Ana pounded on his back to help him break up the mucus clogging his lungs.

            After he’d had time to catch his breath, the blond continued.

            “How old are you Jesse?” She coaxed gently.

            “I uh…nineteen, I think?” He croaked out, “S hard to keep track now,” Blondie nodded, scribbling down a few more notes.

            “Good, Jesse what do you remember last?” She asked, “Do you remember the night that Ana found you?”

            What did he remember?

            Everything was still a big blur in his head.

            He could remember being in the truck. He remembered music and bickering. He was looking out the window…

            He saw something.

            No.

            Someone.

            Someone in the trees.

            They crashed.

            The river.

            They were sinking.

            The water was so cold.

            Bars was reaching for him.

            He was telling him to leave Zeke.

            Zeke was stuck.

            He…

            Zeke…

            Zeke…oh fuck, Zeke!

            Nausea bubbled up in Jesse’s stomach before he could speak, reeling away from Blondie he heaved over the edge of the bed his empty stomach producing nothing but bile.

            Tears streaming down his cheeks, Jesse shook with exhaustion and grief, startled to feel a cool hand supporting his forehead keeping him from falling out of bed.

            “Hush Habibi, it’s alright,” Ana soothed gently, waiting until he’d stopped dry heaving before helping him to sit up once more. “You do not need to think about it.” She insisted, brushing his hair from his sweaty forehead and guiding him back until he could lay down once more.

            Jesse shuddered violently, but nodded, leaning into her touch. He was so damn tired.

            “I r-recognize your voice,” He croaked out softly, fighting back the waves of nausea.

            “Oh? I am surprised, you were barely conscious when I found you,” Ana noted, carding her fingers through his hair, gently coaxing out the tangles with her fingertips.

            Jesse nodded, his eyes fluttering shut as he allowed his breathing to even out once more.

            “Well Jesse, I am not sure what all you heard before we entered the room,” Ana continued, her voice soothing in his head, “But you are safe here.” She stated firmly, and despite everything he’d heard said outside, Jesse believed her.

            “Thank you…” He croaked softly, his eyes fluttering open once more to look up at the two women. “I…I heard someone…I heard him say that Deadlock is gone…I…was he tellin’ the truth?” he rasped, grief and anxiety swirling through his empty stomach.

            Ana and Blondie exchanged looks.

            It was Ana who confirmed his worst fears.

            “Yes, Deadlock…at least from what our scouts have found out, no longer exists,” She whispered, her hand sliding from his hair to rest on his shoulder. “I am so sorry,” She mumbled, her eyes filled with sympathy.

            The world seemed to crumble away around Jesse, grief, and exhaustion leaving him numb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Deadlock? What happened to Jack? Will the others ever accept Jesse into their community?  
> The answer to these questions and many more in the next installment!

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be keeping an eye pretty closely on comments, so if you like where things are going let me know. If you don't? Let me know too. I love and enjoy the feedback. Right now I have a general idea of how I want this to go, but a lot is up in the air.  
> Stay tuned for updates.


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